We love new technology at Point of Reference. And being in the Salesforce.com partner ecosystem means we have a steady stream of new “toys” to leverage for clients. So, when Salesforce announced ChatGPT for Slack we were ecstatic. Generative AI has been on our radar since the middle of 2022. By the time this announcement came out we had been contemplating a wide variety of applications for AI in our customer marketing domain. Imagine, you just received a request to use a customer not yet in your program for an advocate activity. ChatGPT for Slack would allow you to ask if that company has any open support cases, what their spend history has been over the last three years, and when their contract renews…and get a cogent, concise answer based on your company’s Salesforce data! How about a quick ChatGPT question concerning when an advocate was last used and for what type of activity? Needless to say, ChatGPT is only as good as the data, but provided it’s reliable, this will be a leap forward to retrieving data.
One thing that exercise made clear was that we have never considered a customer marketing world where relationships weren’t at the center. Every feature we design considers deeply how the humans involved (customer, customer marketer, customer success manager, account executive, etc.) factor in. There’s always an analog equivalent to the digital manifestation.
What we do in customer marketing, though in a business context, is so personal. We ask customers to allocate time, stake their reputation and invest emotionally in us. In the early iteration of Point of Reference, we interviewed our client’s advocates about their customer experiences to create advocate content for sellers’ use. What came through loud and clear in the pre-interview banter was that the customer agreed to be interviewed because of their sales rep, account manager or consultant. It was, without exception, always about the relationship. The customer felt well-cared for and wanted to express their gratitude.
Customer marketers, particularly those who manage customer communities, put a lot of energy into inventing ways to make advocates feel special. We see this within our customer base, and read about it from some of the content creators in our space like Mary Green, Leslie Barrett, Alison Bukowski, Valeria Gomez and agencies like Captivate Collective. This is how we show our gratitude to advocates who invest in a relationship with us. I relate to this type of customer marketer – they get the power of relationships. And that goes for how they think about relationships with internal stakeholders as well.
If the designated customer marketer doesn’t thrive on cultivating and sustaining relationships, then perhaps there’s a better fit elsewhere in the marketing organization (analysis, operations, demand gen, digital). If that marketer’s end goal is to have as little contact as possible with advocates and internal stakeholders by automating every touchpoint, every ask, every reward, then you have a transactional, superficial customer marketing operation, not to be confused with a program. And you’re leaving a lot of goodwill and value to the organization on the table.
There are plenty of places where a relationship can be replaced with automation. Think: ATMs, restaurant reservations, and parking kiosks. But, I place a high value on relationships when it comes to healthcare, insurance and legal related stuff. They’re personal in nature, and not the parts of life where you want to feel like a number or a QR code.
Algorithms and various forms of automation can generate system generated notifications, but they certainly don’t make us feel special. In fact, they mess up just enough (wrong information, bad assumptions, wrong timing) that I’m often quick to ignore or discard them, with a little disgust thrown in.
Customer marketing done well is relationship-intensive. That’s different than labor-intensive, which can be largely solved by practical, intelligent automation. The question in relationship-intensive fields is How do we deepen, expand and elevate relationships? Not, How do we avoid people and still get what we want? The latter may be tempting to an efficiency zealot more comfortable with technology than people. They lose sight of the humanity part of what we do.
Take a common “ask” a customer marketer makes of an advocate. We believe this simple act is full of nuance and that human intelligence plays an important role. First, should the ask even be made? Is the advocate on leave of absence? Are they knee-deep in an internal project? Are they the right advocate? Do they have the necessary perspective, history and expertise for the need? Who is asking? The one making the ask will have a lot to do with the answer.
How would you feel if that ask came quite obviously from a system rather than a person? What if AI could pretty well fake a human ask, but then flubs the interaction a few steps later, exposing the ruse? What was a personal interaction just became a social faux pas—with one of your best customers! The motivation to help is lost because the relationship has been devalued. Didn’t take much to wipe out any accrued goodwill.
That’s not an attractive vision to us. It’s not what’s so alluring and gratifying about customer marketing, where true magic happens in business relationships. So, consider the role of relationships in customer marketing as all forms of new and titillating AI applications flood our world. Assist us? Yes. Substitute for humanity? That’s a hard no. We are in a business that’s powered by relationships, first and foremost. It will be a long time before AI gets the emotional quotient (EQ) part right, if ever.
As we incorporate generative AI and predictive analytics into our customer marketing solution, we won’t allow the glitter of these technologies to ever blind us to what’s at the core of our mission: relationships.
As this infographic illustrates, a mature advocacy program is responsible for continuously identifying advocates, maintaining accurate advocacy data, protecting customer relationships, and aligning with top company goals to accelerate growth.
The infographic contains six key components. Here's a description of each for you to translate into your own talking points.
Every advocate starts as a customer.
The journey begins when account teams, customer success managers, support teams, and services organizations create positive experiences that build trust and confidence.
As customers achieve success, some become enthusiastic supporters of the company, its products, and its people. These customers are identified as potential advocates and introduced to the advocacy team.
The advocacy team interviews these individuals, learns about their experiences, captures important details about their interests and expertise, and creates a searchable advocate profile.
The result is a discoverable advocate: someone who can be found, matched, and engaged when the business needs credible customer voices.
Without this process, valuable customer relationships remain hidden inside co-workers’ heads or team spreadsheets, unavailable to the broader organization.
Great advocates are rarely discovered by the advocacy team alone. It’s really just too much to ask of any one part of the organization. Every customer touchpoint plays a part in cultivating and retaining advocates.
Customer success managers see customer enthusiasm firsthand. Account teams hear success stories during business reviews. Support teams witness customer loyalty. Product teams interact with passionate users who influence future direction.
A successful advocacy program creates a systematic way for all customer-facing teams to identify and nominate potential advocates, as well as a means for customers to self-identify..
Think of it as building a talent pipeline.
The broader the participation across the organization, the stronger and more diverse the advocate community becomes.
This collective effort ensures the advocacy database reflects the full spectrum of customer success stories across industries, products, geographies, and use cases.
The advocacy team serves as the steward of the organization's advocacy data.
Their responsibilities fall into three primary areas.
First, they recruit continuously. Advocates change jobs, priorities shift, and customer enthusiasm naturally evolves over time. Maintaining a healthy advocacy community requires constant replenishment.
Second, they keep information current. Customer stories, product deployments, business outcomes, and willingness to participate all change. Outdated advocacy data quickly becomes unreliable.
Third, they measure and report value. Advocacy programs must demonstrate their contribution to business outcomes such as customer acquisition, retention, and expansion.
Beyond maintaining records, the advocacy team actively shapes the composition of the database to align with company growth objectives. This is essential if the program is to be seen by executives as a strategic lever vs. a low-level function an intern can run.
If the company’s strategic direction includes expanding into healthcare, launching a new product, selling through a new channel, entering Asia, or targeting a specific buyer persona, the advocacy team ensures the advocate population evolves accordingly.
In many ways, they function as portfolio managers for one of the company's most valuable assets: customer credibility.
Most organizations initially think of advocacy as a sales resource.
Sales certainly benefits from customer references, but advocacy creates value far beyond the sales organization.
The common thread is credibility.
Advocates provide something no marketing budget can purchase directly: authentic proof from real customers.
Most mature advocacy programs include additional components that extend value for both advocates and the business.
These activities are connected mechanisms that strengthen relationships, increase engagement, and create additional opportunities for customers to contribute.
Together, they help transform advocacy from a transactional activity into an ongoing customer experience.
The ultimate purpose of customer advocacy is not activity.
It is business impact.
In Summary
Advocates are valuable assets. The advocacy team's job is to make sure those assets are available when needed, protected from burnout, and aligned with the organization's most important priorities.
When done well, customer advocacy transforms customer success into measurable business value. It is an enterprise capability built on trusted relationships, reliable data, and authentic customer voices.
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